KR|Enmity Review #17: Dymatrox

Toy prototype details

Name: Dymatrox^TM

Subtitle: armed robot

Line: KR|Enmity

Item type: action figure - Nº 15 in the line.

Character details

Name: Dymatrox

Classification: robot

Home: Tahron

Era: 20 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Dark Legion

Rank: service droid.

Background

First appearance: KR|Enmity #2 - Terror from the clouds

Brief bio: originally built by Wordron as an improved version of a standard Dark Legion Trooper, Dymatrox was later upgraded by Ignitrys^TM using Xonedar's stolen backpack, in order to increase its lethality. Thanks to those enhancements, this deadly robotic soldier wasn't as agile as its forerunners, but carried an extraordinary variety of weapons, including cannons, rotating blades, laser rifles and even a built-in system for self destruction, which made it well suited to join the Dark Legion in their fight for supremacy. During his campaign of terror against King Li-Khon, Wordron utilised Dymatrox on the front line as an attack droid, which effortlessly carried out any orders and used its destructive capacity to confront the Therioms in battle.

Articulation

Standard, with four additional fully articulated arms and a hinged lower jaw; all arms have ball jointed wrists.

Description

Head: silver reptile skull (slightly flattened from side to side, and showing a few mechanical and electrical components), the eyes emit a yellow glow. The head structure resembles a Stygimoloch's pear-shaped, domed skull and its look is definitely evil. Short conical hornlets cover the nose area, while the back corners of the skull bear a pair of large, backward-pointing spikes, which are surrounded by three smaller spikes. Interestingly, the lower jaw is movable and shows some more technological parts sculpted on the inside of the mouth. The origin of this head is kinda mysterious - in the comics, Wordron claims that he found it during one of his archaeological excavations, which is very interesting because it would mean that the concept of a robotic skull-headed soldier is a very ancient idea of the Reptonoids'

Body: three pairs of arms (the additional arms project from the torso at the shoulders and the flanks) and one pair of legs; these silver, fully articulated limbs are mostly a reuse of the Destructomorph Trooper's electro-hydraulic limbs and display lots of machinery/circuitry patterns, including tubes, wires, pistons and hinges

Wearables: a bulky metallic light-blue armour with black details, six metallic light-blue cuffs, a metallic light-blue belt and a black crotch piece. Every component shows lots of cyber details; in particular, the armour has circuits and cables all over, two large rectangular air vents near the central arms, as well as a high, keel-shaped neck that conceals the lower part of the head. The lower legs are huge and, like the armour, each bears light-blue air vents at the sides, while the soles display turbines and other seemingly moving parts.

Dymatrox's stylised armour.

Action feature

Dymatrox is not just a normal reptilian robot like many we've seen in the past - he's equipped with an awesome arsenal of melee weapons and fire power, to annihilate the opposing side. First up, the "shin guards" fold down, to direct two black missile launchers towards its enemies; each piece of artillery is spring-loaded and shoots a two-headed light-blue missile. Also, its arms feature multiple weapons, which, by default, are: two black Gatling-type guns (each has a barrel cluster rotating around a central cannon) for the lower arms, a circular silver saw and a 4-blade buzz saw (the former spins around a rotation axis that is perpendicular to Dymatrox's arm, the latter spins coaxially with the arm) for the central arms, and two 4-jaw silver claws for the upper arms. All these weapons are interchangeable arm attachments that can be swapped around.

Dymatrox also displays a black dual laser rifle attached to its back. This weapon fictionally slides up and swings over the robot's head, encasing completely the latter (a V-shaped yellow visor allows for sight) and pointing the double Y-shaped light-blue barrel at the opponents. Such feature can be reproduced simply by detaching the weapon from the back (which reveals a hole disguised as a battle damage) and placing it, rather loosely I have to say, on top of the armour's collar once the head is removed. I know that the original design involved two separate rifles that would flip over the shoulders, but the lack of room between the head and the upper arms made that option unfeasible.

Finally, the chest plate of the armour (together with the collar) is removable, revealing crazy details in the figure's inner body: a buzz saw launcher that in the comics is capable of hurling bladed discs (one of such discs is included as an add-on), a pair of spiked rollers (they can really rotate synchronously by means of gears!) through which the enemy is driven by two plug-in steel wires ending with barbed shock anchors that are fictionally fired to pierce armour and cause temporary paralysis, and a rectangular lenticular sticker that resembles a bomb control panel.

Weapons and accessories

The folks at PoliganToys probably thought that Dymatrox wasn't armed enough, so they decided to include some additional vicious tools. In the comics, Dymatrox's claws are extendable and can rapidly stretch out from the two upper arms towards its opponents; so, we get two silver cyber extensions for the claws, although they can actually be used for any of its "extremities".

Additionally, since the claws also have the ability to transform into cutting tools, there is a set of two silver drill bits that can replace the gripping devices.

Finally, the figure comes with two blast attachments that plug into the lower arms cannons: a translucent blue plasma-cannon effect and a translucent red flamethrower effect.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ This is a great inclusion for the line - Dymatrox is a big part of Wordron's forces, even if it only appears in one episode

Articulation: ♥♥♥ The movement is as much as I need from a 6-armed robot. The only thing I could suggest, in order to improve posing, would be using slightly longer arms. It would require new tooling, but would lend a menacing enemy-crunching pose to the display options

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣ The sculpt is awesome of course and paint is also very nice. The base “metal” of the body is cast in a solid grey plastic, but has a very shiny reflective silver paint to highlight the technological details
Accessories: ♠♠♠♠♠ Everything is excellent here, with so many options available. I like displaying the upper arms with one "hand" in claw mode and the other in spinning drill mode

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ I can tell you that this figure works perfectly and I love it more than I even thought I would

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ The idea that Dymatrox is a further advanced design of Wordron's robots, with elements of the future Reptonoid Troopers such as the reptile head, adds a great new dimension to the Dark Legion shelf. Besides, the sculpt and execution are top notch. That said, I'd want to buy more than one, to build an army of these robots.